Hypsocompe oaxaca, Laguerre, Michel, 2023

Hypsocompe oaxaca Laguerre sp. n.

BOLD:AAF3957

ZooBank:https://zoobank.org/ 9A759E0A-A61A-49B0-BB48-64CDD812654F

Holotype, ♂, MEXICO. OAXACA, Concepcion Papalo , 10-VII-1997, 2275 m, G. Nogueira leg. Gen. ML 2887 (light-blue manuscript label), Sample ID MILA0295 (yellow printed label) –BOLD Process IDARCTA567-07. Will be deposited in MNHN.

Diagnosis. – A small species, the white forewings with a wide network of black patches and streaks. The hindwings are pure white with a wide blackish submarginal band from anal angle to apex.

Male description ( Fig 16)

Antennae thin and black, shortly ciliate. Head, frons black and vertex white and very hairy. Palpi short and black, very hairy. Tegulae white with a central triangular black patch. Patagia black bordered by long white hairs. Thorax hirsute, white with a black square central spot, underside black. Forewings with a creamy-white background and a pattern of black spots and patches covering the entire surface. Hindwings white, slightly translucent, with the veins outlined with buff-yellow. A double dark grey spot on costa near base, a dark grey patch at the end of cell, an irregular dark grey band in submarginal position from anal angle to apex and finally five to six dark grey round dots of variable size on margin. The anal border with grey hairs. Underside identical to upper side except the forewing pattern which is dark grey instead of black.

Female. – Unknown.

Male genitalia ( Fig. 17).

Tegumen ovoid. Short, lanceolate valvae, not reaching the base of uncus. They are bent ventrally in the last third. Uncus short and narrow, strongly sclerotized and shaped as a hook. Below uncus a pair of granulose sclerotized almost spherical processes. Vinculum evenly rounded with a short saccus. Juxta prominent and shaped as an hour-glass. The aedeagus short and cylindrical is not strongly sclerotized but displays a wide scobinate vesica bearing near base an area of thin cornuti. Caecum penis present and round but short. Tergite VIII subquadrate, deeply bilobed posteriorly.

Early stages. – Unknown.

Etymology. – A noun in apposition by reference to the locality of the type series.

Distribution. – Presently known only at high altitudes in the north of Oaxaca state in Mexico.

Discussion. – This species aligns at 3.0 % from the Mexican Hypercompe tenebra described from Orizaba, Vera-Cruz. The two species have very close habitus and they inhabit the two slopes of the Central Range: on the Atlantic slope for H. tenebra and the Pacific slope for H. oaxaca . Furthermore, the type of tenebra , housed in USNM, and which has been dissected by Alan Watson (reference AW 493 in Watson, 1973), is characterized by an almost plain dark grey hindwing.